X: Rebirth

X Rebirth suffered a disastrous launch. Panned by critics and alienating fans, it was easily the worst received entry in Egosoft's long-running space series. It was also the most successful, selling more copies than any other X game. In the six months since release, Egosoft has been working to justify its customers' purchase, fixing bugs, reworking systems, and adding new features. I spoke with Managing…

X Rebirth was the one game in the current glut of space adventures that I was certain would work. After all, Egosoft has spent the last decade making the most visible and complex space games on the PC. They know how to do this. They also know that the X series has been built for people with an innate understanding of how to play their…

X Rebirth is a typical Egosoft game: complex, big, broken in all kinds of ways. I've been playing it a bit, as you probably expected. I'll have a Wot I Think early next week, and you should at least wait until then before thinking about buying it, because thus far it's been a bit of a mess. Here's what the first few hours have taught…

The thing that surprised me the most during my playthrough of a tiny section of X Rebirth was the combat. It was, admittedly, a combat focused demonstration with a nippy ship, but when I wasn't breaking the game by dodging the story and hunting around the station for fun things to do, being dragged into the space battles wasn't a drag at all. It was…

There was always going to be a catch when I finally got my hands on X Rebirth. On the evidence of the previous games, I'd need about a week to get myself settled comfortably in the cockpit of Egosoft's vast space sim, and I was never going to get that. The demo that was sent to me was the Gamescom floor demo, and it wasn't…

The facile part of my brain that likes pretty things is currently whacking my internal dopamine button and I'm grinning like a quokka. That button is well worn after my last look at X Rebirth, where I watched X- Rebirth being unveiled through through tear-rimmed eyes. One eye was soaked in tears from the beauty and excitement from what I was seeing, and the other…

Hang on. I just need to move all this space to one side to make space for more space. X3: Albion Prelude is a just released expansion pack for X3, bridging the gap to X: Rebirth, which should be with us early next year. The storyline of clashing corporations leads into Rebirth and there are new stations and ships to play around with. That's why…

The many skywalking fans of the X series of spaceship shooty-tradey epics are waiting impatiently for X: Rebirth, a full-on sequel/reboot due next year, but now we unexpectedly hear another game will startjump into our orbit before 2011 is done and dusted. X3: Albion Prelude is an expandalandalandalone for X3, and plans to tell the tale of how the X universe transitioned into the state…

When X Rebirth was announced back in April, there wasn't a huge amount of information to ponder so it seemed natural to expect something similar to previous games in the series. Turns out that while there will still be a great deal of piloting and trading, some things have indeed changed. The most significant shift is the focus to one ship, The Pride of Albion,…

Fans of the X series? Awake from your comas - the series is back with the freshly announced X: Rebirth. There's four images, too. And a trailer! I know there are mixed opinions of the space shopping X games (no skateboarding jokes, please), but really no one is in any position to disagree with their having named the first game's expansion pack, "X-Tension". Really, let's…